20 December 2006
Australia's interest in religion is climbing despite many church pews remaining bare, according to a new book by Professor Gary Bouma, Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the Twenty-First Century.
Celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Priscilla Presley and Kirstie Alley have been a godsend for the Scientology religion worldwide, while nature religions including Wicca and witchcraft are drawing in a new generation of converts.
A new survey reveals the number of people identifying as Scientologists had risen 37 per cent since 1996. Nature religions have grown by 130 per cent in the same period.
The survey also found religion overall was growing and that 74.7 per cent of Australians now identified themselves with a religious group.
Professor Bouma said Australia's youth was flocking to 'mega-churches', such as those of Christian Pentecostals, despite the scepticism of many Australians towards US-style evangelism.
"Some sociologists of the late twentieth century failed to notice the religious and spiritual in Australian life because they confused it with what happens, or was supposed to happen, in churches or other formally organised forms of the religious and spiritual," Professor Bouma said.
"Few sociologists have taken seriously the religious and spiritual life of Australia, often because their expectations have been shaped by secular, anti-religious social theories on the one hand or by negative comparisons between Australian and American religious activity on the other."
Patterns of belief were also increasingly diverse: the number of people who aligned themselves with 'Other Religions' was up 33 per cent on the count in the Australian census in 2001.
Among the religions on the rise are Buddhism, up 79 per cent since 1996, Islam, up 40 per cent, Hinduism up 42 per cent, and Pentecostalism, up 11 per cent.
Australian Soul describes and analyses the nation's religious and spiritual life in detail as well as providing a series of case studies that illustrate the range of practices and beliefs in Australia today. Australian Soul predicts a vital future for religion and spirituality. The book is published by Cambridge University Press, RRP: $39.95.
Professor Bouma is a Monash University academic and chair of interreligious and intercultural relations for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
Professor Bouma is available for interviews about Australian Soul and religious issues over the Christmas holidays. He can be contacted on +61 3 9905 2982 or +61 3 9822 4819.
| 
